Americanmachinist 1071 Casebks0300png00000001842
Americanmachinist 1071 Casebks0300png00000001842
Americanmachinist 1071 Casebks0300png00000001842
Americanmachinist 1071 Casebks0300png00000001842
Americanmachinist 1071 Casebks0300png00000001842

Guarding cleans up transfer line's act

June 1, 2004
Innovative protective guarding allowed Ingersoll Production Systems of Rockford, Ill., to restore a circa-1990s transfer line to like-new, leak-free condition. For upgrading the line's guarding to meet current standards, the company outsourced the design,

To restore a circa-1990s transfer line to like-new, leak-free condition and upgrade its guarding to meet current standards, Ingersoll Production Systems outsourced the design, fabrication, and installation to waycover specialist Hennig Inc.

Innovative protective guarding allowed Ingersoll Production Systems of Rockford, Ill., to restore a circa-1990s transfer line to like-new, leak-free condition. For upgrading the line's guarding to meet current standards, the company outsourced the design, fabrication, and installation of the project to waycover specialist Hennig Inc.

The guarding had to pass the end user's toughest torture test — detecting even the smallest leak by

Innovative protective guarding allowed Ingersoll Production Systems of Rockford, Ill., to restore a circa-1990s transfer line to like-new, leak-free condition. For upgrading the line's guarding to meet current standards, the company outsourced the design, fabrication, and installation of the project to waycover specialist Hennig Inc.

The guarding had to pass the end user's toughest torture test — detecting even the smallest leak by placing white paper under the entire machine during runoff. Complicating matters was a short leadtime and the fact that there was no real original-engineering documentation to go by, so Hennig had to reverse engineer the guarding.

Substituting CAD for guesswork, Hennig quickly engineered a completely leak-free system with several end-user benefits. The system's noise-absorbing cellular foam keeps line noise to within 80 dBa. Accessibility in the tunnel, fixture, and perimeter guarding provides easy access to the line heads and fixtures for routine toolchanges and maintenance. A special lightweight sliding enclosure for the line's cam and crank-boring stations completely seals them during operation, yet allows boring bars to be easily changed.

"By transfer-line standards, this project had to be completed almost overnight," comments Jeff Kimberly, production systems director at Ingersoll. "I can't stress enough how important the teamwork with Hennig was, along with its ability to work with us on-the-fly. Early on, the company provided key bulkhead components to keep us moving forward. If there were any problems, Hennig was there to fix them."

Hennig Inc.
Machesney Park, Ill.
hennig-inc.com